Planning fees increases coming?

[Alan Ambrose]

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/services/weekly-planning-news/planning-news-21-september-2023

 

Planning fees to be varied after Lords amendment

Local authorities can vary fees for planning applications to fit local circumstances after the House of Lords voted under an amendment to the levelling up and regeneration bill. 

The government had proposed to increase planning fees by 35 per cent for major schemes and by 25 per cent for all other applications. 

Earl Howe, deputy leader in the Lords, had warned peers that varying fees could discourage development and remove the incentive to “tackle inefficiencies” in the planning system. 

However, Baroness Pinnock, the Liberal Democrats’ levelling-up spokesperson in the Lords, said nationally set fees fail to take into account regional differences in costs and do not reflect the costs of dealing with very complex housing or commercial developments. 

“This national approach to fee-setting results in council taxpayers subsidising complex planning applications,” she said. “That cannot be right.  

“The stark fact is that 305 out of 343 local authority planning departments had a deficit totalling £245.4 million in 2020 and 2021. That is a huge sum, where council taxpayers are subsidising housebuilding developers, for example, who are well able to meet the costs of a planning application in full.” 

The amendment was carried by 181 votes to 148 after attracting cross-party support. The vote is the second significant defeat for the government in the Lords following last week’s rejection of ministerial plans to scrap nutrient neutrality rules. 

18 September 2023 
Huw Morris, The Planner